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Tim WatersFractal Artist

90's Fractal Rave Flyers

Welcome to my archive of classic UK 90's rave flyers that featured fractal Computer graphics.

During the early 90's computer generated fractal graphics and the UK rave scene collided. The psychedelic imagery of fractal art became an icon of this hedonistic rave generation and fractal art was often used in promotional material for warehouse and club nights across the UK. 90s Rave flyers were freely handed by night clubs such as The Eclipse, Helter skelter, Fantazia and Dreamscape to promote all-nighters. People would regularly kept them as souvenirs and to decorate the walls.

This is an archive of these classic old school 90s rave flyers and acid house flyers, mostly from 1990, 1991 1992, 1993. We share some of our experience and knowledge from the time of the background to the fractal art they feature.

Hypnosis at the Base Box Warehouse, Edmonton, Central London.

Hypnosis was situated in an industrial estate on the north circular, London. It had a warehouse rave vibe with UV art and backdrops as well as an air cooled argon laser. DJ's included Fabio, Groovrider, Micky Finn, Steve Bicknell to name but a few.

The first flyer featured below is a full page image of a Mandelbrot fractal. The outside of the fractal has had detail added to it using a smoothy blended spectrum of colours. This was a typical way of colouring in fractal using programs of the time such as Fractint. The inside of the fractal is black which gives a striking edge to the fractal coastline. An area of the Mandelbrot set which spirals to infinity has been chosen to give a kaleidoscopic effect.

The second flyer appears to be a single colour reproduction of the first image.

Why did fractal computer graphics end up in the background of rave flyers?

Fractal computer graphics and rave culture combined in the early 90s.

Electronic dance music was developing its identity and computer generated imagery often provided the backdrop for this rave generation.

The vivid colours and kaleidoscopic pattens that feature in fractal graphics had a psychedelic feel that appealed to this drug fueled culture and fractals became an icon of the time representing hedonism and new age thinking.

Used as a backdrop to promotional material that was handed out freely, the colourful flyers would draw people to these all night events and the flyers would be kept and used to decorate the homes of people in this scene.

Equinox at the Fun House, Milwaukee's, Bedford.

Milwaukee's also known as the Fun house was one of the first fully licensed all night rave venues in the UK, situated between Northampton and Bedford in the south of England in a rural location so there ware no noise restrictions. It set the standard in the early days for all night club entertainment paving the way for clubs like the Sanctuary in Milton Keynes. It boasted a 25K Cerwin-vaga sound system with 5K Sub base. It also promoted it's 'tight but right' security.

These collection of flyers here are for the night Equinox which included DJ's such as Top Buzz, Jumping Jack Frost, Groovrider, LTJ Bukem, Fat Controller, DJ Hype, Micky Finn , DJ SS, Slipmat to name but a few.

I made the first two flyers below. The images were sold as posers and postcards in the UK in record stores, poster shops such as Athena and student markets. These images were presumably scanned from a postcard, however I had no involvement in this.

Thr fractal landscape was made using Fractint and then stitched together using a command line image editing tool. There was lots of rendering, masking, and overlaying, I seem to remember it took a few days to put together. The rings around the plazma planet are a type of fractal called a lorenz curve and the landscape was a 3d projection of the Mandelbrot set.

Galleries and museums became interested in the ideas of the Chaos theory and Fractals and this image went on to be exhibited in UK venues including Derby industrial museum, Warwick central art gallery, and Milton Keynes long lounge.

The story behind this flyer

90s fractal rave flyer - Equinox - Alive & Linking at Milwaukees, Bedford. 21st August 1995, 28th August 1995, 4th September 1995, 11th September 1995. Fun house promotions. (Back)
Equinox - Alive & Linking at Milwaukees, Bedford. 21st August 1995, 28th August 1995, 4th September 1995, 11th September 1995. Fun house promotions.

I made the fractal image used in this flyer in 1991. It was one of a series of fractal designs I created on a home computer as an art project.

During that summer I used to go to free parties and festivals across the UK and to make a bit of money on the side I would sell some of these images there. Fractals were still very new and they had a psychedelic quality that appealed to ravers and the alternative crowd.

I would simply set out a stall on the floor on a black cloth. The prints were literally photos I had taken of my computer screen and I would sell them for 50p.

One time at Glastonbury festival I remember two guys coming up to me and taking an interest. They said they were from Fun House Promotions and asked if I could do visuals for dance music.

At the time I was nowhere near this as my art was just a casual hobby, I remember thinking how amazing this would be which is why I recall them so distinctly.

They bought a few images from this batch of fractals and wandered off. I imagine they scanned them and used them for the background, being a photograph it would have lent itself to this use.

I went on to work with GB Poster who sold my art as posters and postcards in the UK.

Fast forward 30 years and thanks to people posting old photos of their raver days on social media I have discovered quite a few of my images were used for rave flyers.

They often pop up in the background where they were used to decorate student digs and bedroom walls. I never got credited for this, however, I'm flattered my art is a part of the backdrop for this time.

Energy at The Eclipse nightclub - Coventry

Coventry in the midlands. UK was at the center of the dance music scene in the early 90s with the Eclipse night club being at the center of this underground revolution. Huge acts played there regularly, including The Prodigy.

People traveled from all over the country to visit the Eclipse night club and a number of flyers for the night called Energy were made and handed out across the country.

Energy - Karma productions

The night Energy as well as the name Eclipse featured in further Karma Productions club events across the country where the theme of fractals in their flyers remain popular.

Most notable were the flyers for the Brixton Academy in London and the Moon club in Bristol. These flyers reproduced fractal images which first appeared in the exhibition of fractal art 'Frontiers of Chaos of the German Goethe-Institute'. Images from this exhibition later featured in the 1986 book by Heinz-Otto Peitgen and Peter Richter 'The Beauty Of Fractals' where they were most likely copied from.

In another flyer for the all nighter at the T2 Aircraft Hanger in Norfolk layers of fractal graphics and silhouette imagery are used to depict planes flying over a fractal coastline. The fractal in this uses the default test screen colour palette from the fractal software Fractint that was popular at the time.

Reincarnation at the Kings hall and later Crestal Palace

The fractals used in these flyers where created by the artist Gregory Sams. He was one of the UKs most prominent fractal artists of the early 90s and had a shop called Strange Attractions in London dedicated to fractals and the chaos theory.

Popular poster art was often used to make rave flyers.

90s fractal rave flyer - Fun city, Busbys, Charing cross road, motion promotion - june 1991 - 90s fractal rave flyer
An old poster I kept from back in the day, I got this at Glastonbury festival 1989. I think it was published by GB posters in Sheffield. I brought it on a 'trip' to Glastonbury festival. It ended up on a lot of classic rave flyers from this time

This image first appeared in the exhibition of fractal art 'Frontiers of Chaos of the German Goethe-Institute'. Images from this exhibition later featured in the 1986 book by Heinz-Otto Peitgen and Peter Richter 'The Beauty Of Fractals' where they were most likely copied from. I think it is one of the most iconic images of this time.

It has been used on may rave flyers from the early 90s including Fun City and Busbys in June 1991 where it was used as a negative and in the Energy flyer at the popular flyer for Eclipse in Coventry 29 November 1991.






















Energyflow at the Broard Meadow Sports Center, Teigmouth.

This hardcore dance night found its way to the south west of the UK.

Odyssey, Brunel rooms, Swindon

Odyssey was in the early 90s the first night-club in the South West doing all-nighters. On a friday night over a 1000+ ravers would travel from all over the south west of england to hear local djs and guests.

These Odyssey flyers as well as the Revelation flyers featured on this page were created by Rik Penny. They were produced on his Amstrad PC1512 home computer using Fractint, the popular fractal program at the time. The files were so large for the time that he had to take the entire computer to the repro bureau to make the film separations. This sort of desktop publishing was in its infancy, and the company had never run 4 colour separations before, only single colour ones, so it was ground-breaking for its time!' The Odyssey flyers were made by Rik directly with the nightclub.'

Revelation at the Warehouse, Plymouth

The Warehouse in Plymouth was a venue that has a lot of history in the early dance scene. The queues were massive and just when you thought you were getting in a coach would arrive from Liverpool or Manchester. It featured a floating dance floor, an egg dj booth and multiple levels. It was voted best dance club in the UK 3 times.

These min 90s fractals feature some high quality renderings of the Mandelbrot fractal. These are mixed with 3d super real raytraced graphics which was just becoming popular on the cover of albums made by electonic artist such as the Black dog and music releaded on Warp records.

These fylers as well as the Odyssey flyers featured on this page were created by Rik Penny. They were created using Fractint, the popular fractal program at the time on his Amstrad PC1512 home computer. These were made via DJ Mach one.

Club Kinetic, Leisurebowl, Stoke & Tramps in Swansea.

Kinetic opened its doors in May 1992. Home to some of the UK's finest DJs including Slipmatt, DJ Rap, The Ratpack together with residents MC Connie, DJ Diamond, Daba and TJ.

There colourfull and playfull flyers featured some highly textured fractals which make stiking backgrounds. The laysers of graphics, sillhoets and easten photography give a cosmic yet futuristic feal and they are quite unique.

Pendragon at the Theatre Warehouse Factory. Dalston London.

Pendragon formed in 1991, inspired by Celtic mythology and a vision of spiritually there nights offered uplifting trance and positive energy. The nights combined music, counterculture, performances and visuals, which they took to the next level.

One of the first and longest running techno-trance parties in the UK, Pendragon had nine successful events at the Academy in Brixton London before moving to the Fridge also in London.

The fractal art created for their promotional material is heads above the rest. These include 3d rendered fractal landscapes of psychedelic lands with kaleidoscopic sunsets, front and back. For late 80s and early 90s these where at the top of the art form.

Passion - Storm Presents - The Event Brighton

The first two flyers feature a full page image of a Mandelbrot fractal. A psychedelic colour palette has been chosen to add colour to the outside of the fractal. The inside of the fractal is barely visible as it spirals to infinity in a kaleidoscopic effect. It is a low resolution image and you can see the pixels, however, fractals at the time typically used a GIF 87a file format which allowed for the storing of the fractal coordinates with the image so it could be reloaded and the fractal could be further manipulated.

The second flyer appears to be the same image as before with an alternative colour palette applied to it. It has a single colour which would have been used to reduce the printing costs.

Classic fractal rave flyer FAQ

Question: Are classic rave flyers with fractals on them valuable?

Answer: People collect classic rave flyers and the price of rare rave flyers is increasing all the time.

Question: Where can I go to buy classic 90s rave flyers with fractals on them?

Answer: You can find lots of classic rave flyers for sale on ebay.

Question: What are the fractals used in these rave flyers made with?

The fractals used in 90s rave flyers were created using computers with fractal graphics software.

Question: What is a mandelbrot fractal?

Answer: The Mandelbrot fractal is a mathematical patturn made with computers. It is named after the mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot.

Question: Why did fractls get used on classic 90s rave flyers?

Answer: Fractal first became popular in the 90s. The psychedelic imagery of fractal art became an icon of the rave generation.

Question: Are fractal rave flyers art?

Answer: People use to collect rave flyers in the 90s and decorate their homes with them.